Tag: Faux meat

Last week I woke up with a sore throat and a horrible headache so I decided to whip up some chicken noodle soup. I took pictures and promised myself that I would blog about it however that night I got extremely sick. Once I recovered I’ve been super busy/lazy whichever you’d like to use haha!

The chicken chunks I’ve used are from Vincent Vegetarian Food in Melbourne. There are quite a few Vietnamese stores around Melbourne that stock these products.

Also, in my pictures the soup looks a bit oily, this is because in my sick state I accidentally added way too much oil to the pot. Ooops!

I love pies. Maybe it’s because I’m Australian. I’ve been vegetarian since I was 3 years old, so I’ve never had a meat pie. Most shops don’t have vegan pie options or if they do, they’re terrible. These pies are everything you love about pies, golden flaky pastry with a warm chunky yet healthy filling!

I made this recipe to freeze and store for a rainy day, you can however bake them straight away!

Firstly start by soaking the soy chunks in hot water and set aside. Chop the mushrooms and carrots into chunks.

Peel and slice the onions into half rings. Heat some olive oil in a frying pan and sauté the onion with the rosemary for approximately 10 minutes or until soft and golden.

Add the flour and let it cook off for a minute or two and then add the vegemite, soy sauce and tomato paste. Add the stock and bring it to the boil. Reduce to a simmer and let it bubble away for approximately 15 minutes until it is nice and thick.

Once the gravy is done, drain the soy chunks and add to the gravy. Soy chunks are like sponges and they’ll absorb some of that lovely gravy.

Use your mini pie tins to measure out how much pastry you will need (I forgot to do this, oops!) and then spray them with cooking oil. I didn’t put pastry on the bottom because I’m trying to be healthy but you can. Divide the vegetables equally between your pie tins and pour over the gravy and soy chunks.

Top with the pastry and cover with foil to freeze. Alternatively heat up your oven to 200c before starting the gravy and bake for approximately 20 minutes or until the top is golden. If baking from frozen, it takes approximately 40 minutes.

This is my very first time writing a blog! This recipe is adapted from Naty of Big Sky Sanctuary Inc. (https://www.facebook.com/bigskysanctuarybandb) and her demonstration at the vegan bake sale at CERES which was on the 26th of April 2015.

Method
Drain the can of beans and mash them with a potato masher until they are almost but not completely mashed. You want them to still be a little chunky.

Mix all the ingredients except the flour in a bowl. Slowly add the flour to the mix and work it with your hands like you would a dough. Once its all mixed in and there are no dry flour bits, cut or tear the mix into six pieces. You might just need to add more or less flour depending on the moisture content of the beans and tomato paste.

Shape each of the pieces into a sausage shape, then wrap tightly in foil. They don’t look pretty but trust me, they taste amazing!

Steam the sausages for about 30 minutes. Keep an eye on the water levels, which I forgot to do! Once they come out they should be pretty firm, but not tough. I ended up with 6 sausages and a tiny bit left over, which I made into a patty.

At this stage you can either fry them up or freeze them for later.

Don’t like these flavours? You can use –
Soy sauce
Chilli sauce
Onions
Curry powder
Jalapeños

The flavour and shape combinations are endless! Make them into patties, meat balls, crumble them up and use as mince.